The Holy Spirit: Guide and Sustainer - Matthew 3:13-4:11

This morning we’re looking at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry and how the Holy Spirit guides him in his preparation for the years of ministry that lay ahead of him. We don’t often connect Jesus’ baptism with his time in the wilderness. Jesus seeks out his cousin John to be baptized by him. John is humble and wise enough to realize that he’s the one needing to be baptized by Jesus rather than the other way around. But Jesus insists, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” This phrase of Jesus has created a lot of discussion among scholars through the years. Righteousness is about a correct relationship to the will of God as reflected in his covenantal relationship with Israel. Righteous actions are those actions that flow out of God’s choosing Israel to be his people, and the laws and ways God gave them to live by. This is connected to our salvation because God is righteous and the saviour of his people. Isaiah 61:10 reflects this, “I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”

Dallas Willard writes about salvation and I saw how Jesus and the Holy Spirit work out our salvation, “Salvation includes three things that are available to us: Forgiveness of sins. Through the work of Christ and his substitutionary stand before God on our behalf, our sins are forgiven through the mercy of God. Transformation of character into the image of Jesus Christ. We are meant to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29). This is a work of grace just as much as the forgiveness of sins. And there is nowhere any indication that this is something that is supposed to happen after we die. A significant degree of power over evil, both in our own lives and in the life of the church of which we are essentially a part.” The Spirit works out the work of Christ within us. It made me think about what Jesus is saying about fulfilling all righteousness, with the images of Isaiah 61 and salvation, transforming our character in the image of Jesus, and giving us power over evil’s influence and temptations. It starts here with Jesus’ baptism and consecration to God’s will and plan.

Right after the Holy Spirit comes on Jesus and God announces his pleasure in Jesus, the Spirit leads Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. This is all about being prepared for this new stage in Jesus’ coming to earth as our messiah. A number of cultures have young men going out by themselves to prepare for manhood. Here in Canada, First Nations young men would go out on vision quests to seek a spirit guide; something similar happens among many African tribes. They seek out guidance from the spirit world, seeking for an identity. They missed out on the Spirit of God who hovered over creation at the beginning, bringing life because they didn’t know Jesus yet. Jesus went into the wilderness, not seeking a spiritual guide, but guided by the Holy Spirit. A generation ago, it was common for people to take time to travel and find themselves, a similar thing, not realizing that the way to finding their identity lay in Jesus rather than in themselves.

The wilderness was the place Israel went to encounter God in order to be shaped by God, seeking his guidance. The Spirit leads Jesus to learn what being the Son of God actually means and looks like, what the nature of being God’s son is. In the coming temptations, the test will be to do his ministry in his own power, or to trust in his Father and the anointing power and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Throughout Scripture, we see the Spirit guide the people, or cries for the Spirit’s guidance. Ps 78:52 “But he brought his people out like a flock; he led them like sheep through the wilderness,” Isa 49:10 “They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them. He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them beside springs of water.” Isaiah 11:1–3 points ahead to the Spirit guiding the coming Messiah, “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears.”

This echoes forward to the Spirit being given to us, to be a guide to us, a guide into places and times to shape and form us, given to point us to Jesus and remind us of who Jesus is. The Spirit will lead many of us into the wilderness at times. Sometimes it can be especially dark or hard; it can be lonely or overwhelming. It’s in these times we’re encouraged to call to the Holy Spirit and cry out, “Sustain me, help me through this dark valley, over this impossible mountain.” The Spirit is there!

In Ezekiel 36:26–28 we’re given a glimpse of how the Spirit will guide us, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. Then you will live in the land I gave your ancestors; you will be my people, and I will be your God.” Here we see the Spirit is not only given to guide us, but to sustain us, “You will live in the land I gave your ancestors,” and we see this when Israel wanders through the wilderness, the Spirit led them to places where there was water, into places of safety and provided food through the forty years.

Jesus fasts for 40 days and nights, open to the leading and instruction from his Father through the Spirit. The Spirit doesn’t leave Jesus as he enters the wilderness, just as the Spirit doesn’t leave Israel when they’re taken into exile, as Ezekiel shows us when the Spirit leaves the temple and goes east with the people when they are taken to Babylon, just as the Spirit doesn’t leave us when he guides us into new directions, places, and times. This is why Mikenna is able to go to a different part of the world with YWAM in strength and confidence, knowing the Spirit is with her.

After 40 days and nights of fasting, the devil appears and 3 times he tries to tempt Jesus to walk a different path in being the Son of God then God gives, and 3 times Jesus responds with the words God had given Israel earlier, to feast on God’s word, to trust God in all things, and to worship God alone. This echoes ahead to John 14:26 when Jesus promises his disciples the Holy Spirit, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you,” just as the Spirit reminds Jesus of God’s word in response to the devil.

The Holy Spirit protects and sustains God’s people. In Job we hear the Lord say in Job 1:12, “The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.” Then in Job 2:6, “The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.” Here the Lord restricts Satan’s power and influence, sustaining Job during this time of trial and temptation. Louis Berkhof writes about common grace and how “divine punishments and rewards serve to encourage moral goodness in the world. The Spirit restrains sin in the lives of people and nations and sin is not permitted to complete its destructive work: punishments often check the sinful deeds of men, and the rewards spur them on to do what is good and right.” With all the evil and violence happening in our world today, we know the Holy Spirit’s working, making sure that evil’s restrained from taking over. We know that no matter what happens, the Holy Spirit’s with us, he will carry us, and will guide us to remain true to Jesus, to be salt and light in even the darkest time.

Because the Spirit is with us, Jesus is able to tell us in Matthew 5:44–45, “But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” I love following Jesus; he gives us his Spirit to guide us, to be with us, and to give us what we need as we travel through life, knowing who I am, who I belong to, and giving me what I need to be a blessing. I encourage you; embrace Jesus and his Spirit, allow the Spirit to guide and sustain you.

 

 

The Holy Spirit: Spirit of Power - Judges 3:7-11; 6:33-35; John 14:15-21

Christianity has often been accused of being a religion for weaklings who create a God to lean on because they’re not strong enough to stand on their own. Harold Ballard, owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1970s, traded away players who were Christians because he didn’t think they were tough enough, Ted Tuner, a media mogul said, “Christianity is a crutch for the weak, a religion for losers,” while the philosopher Friedrich Nietzche believed that God is a mental construction to calm distress during times of suffering, that belief in God is weakness.

Ballard, Turner, and Nietzsche do have one thing right, Christianity is for the weak. We see this over and over again, first in Israel, and later in the church. We keep falling and failing and need to be rescued, saved, and renewed. There’s this great fallacy that we’re strong enough to make it through life on our own, that we have the strength within ourselves to make it through any and all hard times if we only trust in ourselves and work hard. We even find this belief in church when we claim that God doesn’t give us more than we can handle, a misunderstanding of 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.” Paul’s talking about temptation here, not about suffering or hard times. God sometimes does give us more than we can handle to teach us to rely on him, to build our character, or to show his power through our weakness.

Paul gets this in 1 Corinthians 1:27–29, “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” We’re all weak, called to trust and lean on God. Paul has his own weakness that he asks God to take away, but trusts God will give him the strength he needs, whether God takes his thorn away or not, 2 Corinthians 12:7–10, “Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” Our strength comes from God through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Søren Kierkegaard was a Danish philosopher in the 1800s. He ached for a return of passion to the Christian life. He turned to the Old Testament, where he found people who seemed more real. They were saints and sinners, and there was nothing phony about them. God really worked in their lives, and they had a passion for him. R.C. Sproul writes, “Another professor once asked me, “How do you assess the strength of the church today?” I replied that it was becoming increasingly clear to me that many people in the church have a vibrant faith, believe the cardinal doctrines of Scripture, and so forth, but few of them see the Christian faith as a mission, as a profound concern in their lives. That was what Kierkegaard longed to see.”

God sees and hears us, and as we see in the judges Othniel, Gideon, and others, the Lord sends his Spirit on his chosen to save his people. Othniel defeats the king of Aram and the people have peace for 40 years. Gideon defeats the Midianites and Israel has peace for 40 years. But Israel keeps drifting away from the Lord between judges. The Old Testament shows us the Holy Spirit filling various people with his power for special tasks to protect and lead his people out of oppression and into freedom, or to call them back to the Lord. Isaiah 40:29–31 is a beautiful statement of the Holy Spirit’s commitment to us, “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

One thing that fills me with hope is that God chooses people filled with doubt, people who are weak and broken, and he fills them with his Spirit of power to do his work. He simply calls us to respond in faith and he’ll work in us and through us through his Spirit. Jesus knows our weakness and how difficult it is for us to resist sin and temptation, how hard obedience can be, and instead of condemning us, he tells his followers, “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.” The Greek word that is translated as “advocate,” or “comforter” in the Kiing James version, is parakletos. The translators of the King James Version translated parakletos as “comforter” because at that time the English language was more closely connected to its Latin roots. In Latin, the word comfortis, comes from the prefix “com,” meaning “with” and the root word fortis, which means “strong,” so comfortis means “with strength.”

Jesus is promises them the Holy Spirit to strengthen them. As R.C Sproul writes, “The empowerment to live the life that Christ has called us to live comes to us by the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, but the Spirit also fills us with its strength to resist sin, obey Jesus, and carry on Jesus’ work. Paul sees the importance of the Spirit’s power in us to shape us in the image of Jesus in Ephesians 3:16–17, “I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” When we read the book of Acts, we see how the Holy Spirit fills people like the apostles with power to convict people of their sin and lead them to Jesus, and the strength to carry on through hard times and stay on mission to share the good news of Jesus. The Holy Spirit continues to fill us today with the strength needed to follow Jesus and continue his work.

David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary, travelled to Africa in the mid-19th century in order to spread Christianity and end the slave trade. Livingstone’s explorations opened up Africa to the world, challenging the slave trade and creating a foundation for missionaries to come. Despite facing huge challenges, his faith and determination stayed strong, inspired by a vision of Africa’s conversion to Jesus. Livingstone didn’t see many people accept Jesus in his lifetime, his work deeply impacted Africa’s Christian landscape. His work led to many later missions, and his position against slavery created international support. Today Africa is the center of Christianity due to the power of the Holy Spirit. There are many stories of how the Holy Spirit gave believers the strength to go into impossible situations for Jesus, people like Jim Elliot, and later his wife Elizabeth Elliot after he was killed on the mission field. Johanna Veenstra, a CRC missionary who dedicated her life to Nigeria even though the CRC chose the China mission field over Africa. She opened up a mission field there that still bears great fruit today.

A person I’ve been talking to lately told me, “If God really exists, why doesn’t he just save everyone; why would an all-powerful God allow people the freedom to reject him?” In a world leaning more to authoritarianism, the idea of an all-powerful God who allows rejection and disobedience is hard to understand. Power is their god and weakness has no place in their thinking and the idea that God gives his Spirit to weak and broken people to bring new life and hope blows their minds. We’re simply called to trust Jesus’ call to make disciples and share the good news and the power of the Holy Spirit will do the transformation part. I pray this helps to take away the fear of sharing your faith and inviting others to join here at Bethel because the Spirit takes the responsibility of transforming away from us.

The Spirit’s power and strength is available to us when we share the good news that brings freedom from slavery to sin, when disciple-making is the core of our church identity, and our passion grows to introduce the people in our lives to Jesus. Our role is to share who God is in our lives, to introduce them to the Bible; the Holy Spirit will fill us with the strength needed to resist temptation and share the good news wherever God places us, and the Spirit will transform their hearts for Jesus.

The Holy Spirit – Breath of God - Genesis 1:1-2; 2:4-7; John 20:19-23

“In the beginning,” what a great way to start God’s story. In the beginning we meet God, the creator of the heavens and the earth and we’re given a glimpse of the Spirit of God hovering over the waters, the first person of God we’re introduced to.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be reflecting on who the Holy Spirit is. Francis Chan calls the Holy Spirit the “forgotten God,” as much of the church is unable to describe who the Holy Spirit is as God. He writes, “The Holy Spirit is absolutely vital to our situation today. Of course, he is always vital; but perhaps especially now. After all, if the Holy Spirit moves, nothing can stop him. if he doesn’t move, we will not produce genuine fruit—no matter how much effort or money we expend.”

In the beginning, “The earth was formless and empty.” In the Hebrew, the sense of this phrase points to chaos, confusion, and desolation. Over this, God speaks and order, beauty, and life appear. It all begins with the hovering of the Holy Spirit over the earth. Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, write how the Spirit hovers over the waters, “as a fowl does, when hatching eggs. The immediate agency of the Spirit, by working on the dead and discordant elements, combined, arranged, and ripened them into a state adapted for being the scene of a new creation.” The image is of the Spirit preparing the coming creation of the universe to fill it with life.

God’s the creator of everything, including all living beings, setting the stage for the rest of the Biblical story. The fundamental difference between God and all creation is that God’s the creator and we’re the created; everything, including all living creatures, owes their existence to God’s creative power. The creation story emphasizes the sovereignty of God.

The high point of creation is recorded in Genesis 1:26-28, ^“Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” Genesis 2 gives us a very personal glimpse of humanity’s creation, “Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

These verses have fascinated people throughout history with the personal warmth and care that God shows in creating us. There are two parts to our creation; the first is God forming a man from the dust of the ground. The verb is “vasar” and describes the work of an artist; like a potter forming a clay vessel; in a similar way, God is described as creating humanity. After God forms the body, he breathes into the man’s nostrils the breath of life and the man becomes a living being. The Hebrew is “living soul,” making humans both physical and spiritual beings, giving us the ability to have a relationship of fellowship with God. Louis Berkof writes, “His body was formed out of the dust of the earth, while his soul was an immediate creation of God.”

Bonhoeffer marvels at this act of creation, “To say that Yahweh fashions humankind with Yahweh’s own hands expresses two complementary things. On the one hand, it expresses the physical nearness of the Creator to the creature—expresses that it is really the Creator who makes me, the human being, with the Creator’s own hands; it expresses the trouble the Creator takes, the Creator’s thinking about me, the Creator’s intention with me and nearness to me. On the other hand, it expresses also the omnipotence, the utter supremacy, with which the Creator fashions and creates me and in terms of which I am the Creator’s creature; it expresses the fatherliness with which the Creator creates me and in the context of which I worship the Creator. That is the true God to whom the whole Bible bears witness.”

In other places in the Bible, we see the Holy Spirit give life, Job 33:4, “The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life.” Psalm 104:29–30, “When you hide your face, they are terrified; when you take away their breath, they die and return to the dust. When you send your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.” The scholar J.D. Dunn describes the Hebrew understanding of the Spirit, “From earliest Heb. thought rûaḥ had various meanings, all more or less equally prominent. 1. Wind, an invisible, mysterious, powerful force 2. Breath (i.e., air on a small scale), or spirit 3. Divine power…. At its heart is the experience of a mysterious, awesome power—the mighty invisible force of the wind, the mystery of vitality, the otherly power that transforms—all rûaḥ, all manifestations of divine energy.”

Because we’re spiritual beings, the fall into sin impacts us deeply, both physically and spiritually. To enjoy fellowship with God again, we need the Holy Spirit to renew our spirit, our soul. We need regeneration, a theological word for renewal and a new life spiritually. R.C Sproul describes regeneration as, “the ministry and work of the Holy Spirit to come to people who are spiritually dead…. and to re-create them as He regenerates them. “To regenerate” means “to generate anew.” By means of regeneration, the Spirit gives life to people who have no spiritual life. Regeneration is a work that the Holy Spirit does immediately upon the souls of people…, the Spirit directly brings spiritual life out of spiritual death.” This is what Jesus is getting at when he tells Nicodemus that he must be born again.

This helps us understand what Jesus is doing when he appears to his disciples after his resurrection and breaths on them, “Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” He goes on, “If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” Just as the Holy Spirit is there at the beginning of creation and the giving of life, just as in Ezekiel’s valley of dry bones, Jesus breathes on the disciples the gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of new life with God through his death and resurrection. Jesus is looking ahead to Pentecost and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit on all of God’s people. Life is more than breathing, it’s our inner life shaped and directed by the Holy Spirit; it’s what motivates us, what gives us purpose and meaning. Jesus is calling us to make his mission our work, to make him the heart of our lives.

The Spirit’s given the disciples as they’re sent out to share the good news of Jesus, to invite people to accept Jesus as their Lord and Saviour, into the new life found in Jesus. Jesus’ forgiveness points to the new life found in him, and the Holy Spirit is the person of God who works it out in us, shaping our character, how we see and understand life through Jesus’ life and teaching. But there’s also the reality that those who believe they don’t need forgiveness, or those who refuse to repent, or reject Jesus will not receive new life. With all the hatred in the world, all the violence which leads to death both physically, emotionally, and spiritually, there’s a huge need for the new life the Spirit brings, for the peace the Spirit brings. It begins right here with each other, with our neighbours, co-workers, and even within our own families.

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all active in our salvation and regeneration; Titus 3:4–7, “But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” The evidence of our salvation is our changed lives through the shaping and power of the Holy Spirit, 1 Peter 1:22–23, “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.”

If you’re experiencing a desert time, a dry time spiritually, if you’re looking to move past where you’re at, looking for a new start spiritually, if you’re seeking God, forgiveness, or a new life of hope, right now is the time to ask Jesus to fill you with his Spirit, to ask the Spirit to stir within you a deeper desire for Jesus and his new life. It’s never too late to ask. At Bethel, we’re dedicated to helping you grow deeper in your relationship with Jesus, to give you tools, beginning with the Scriptures, to grow in your faith. You can connect with myself, your elder, or with Tammy our Faith Formation Coordinator; we would love to help you grow deeper in your faith.